Interesting. My first thought upon reading this piece was "Palo Alto and New York City: what a broad slice of America. They're missing a lot!".

On second thought that seems too harsh. I'm not sure how the Fulbright program works but I suspect that the Ivy Leagues and the better public and private universities in the US get the lion's share of the feed, which is a shame in a way because places like Princeton, Palo Alto, and Ann Arbor aren't very typical of the US.

But then I considered the Fulbright scholars in light of the 'experiences' of a typical BBC 'US reporter': Washington DC cocktail parties, New York, and New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina - and not much else. Perhaps a little slumming for an amusing piece about a meal in a declasse US chain restaurant once in a while. Alistair Cooke they aren't, most of them. When one looks at it in that light the Fulbright experience (even at Princeton) looks far preferable.

Were I to design a visiting scholars program to spread knowledge about the US I'd send most of the scholars to places more typical of where the average American goes to college. North Carolina - Greensboro rather than Chapel Hill, Michigan - Dearborn rather than Ann Arbor. Perhaps the University of Arkansas where Fulbright himself went to school (I think). They aren't as good a school but you're going to see a wider spectrum of Americans at those places. Republicans are running the country but you don't find very many Republicans in Princeton - and virtually none of the ones you do meet are cultural Republicans (as opposed to the economic variety).

Another possibility are work-study internships - possibly including night school classes at urban universities. One meets the elite and the highly politicised at Columbia - but the real story is going on in night school at CCNY and NYU. Or at my alma mater Wisconsin - Milwaulkee.

And maybe not.

Once upon a time our grandfathers and great grandfathers made these kinds of statements about other groups. In the 1860s the Irish were generally regarded to be a stupid, superstitious bunch full of idle Popish cant. By 1910 the 'backward' group was Eastern European Jews. In the 40's many supposed that Black people were slow - now that has been disproven.

Nevertheless the less-enlightened parts of the populace persevere in their illusions despite having been proven wrong. Repeatedly. The truly amazing thing is how much of this drivel comes out of Ivy League academic types.

Take heart, gentlemen! You're only following the sterling example of your purblind forebears!

The confused leading the confused, David? ;)